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After reading through this thread, I started thinking. What the OP described is more along the lines of SimGalaxy than, say, Master of Orion. But that's not a bad thing, necessarily. So now I've been thinking about just how to make a SimGalaxy game.
Really, it wouldn't be a game at all. It would be a "software toy". The idea is to "play God" with a galaxy and the stuff in it. Or maybe just play God with a single species/civilization within that galaxy. Like any other software toy, you would set your own goals to meet.
In this light, the disaster that was Master of Orion 3 becomes understandable. The developers put a lot of SimGalaxy features in an actual game. As a result, the players felt rather powerless to do anything meaningful. Something else that seriously hindered things here is the turn-based nature of MoO3. Sim-type "games" are much more interactive/real-time than this.
Yet another thing: strictly speaking, SimGalaxy could not have any direct space combat. The player could certainly watch space battles and could try to influence them one way or another, but that's about it. I don't think any software toy has put in any kind of combat, though.
Anyways, I'd like to try to flesh out this idea further. What would work here and what wouldn't work? For example, what level of intervention would be appealing to the most people? If anyone else is interested in this idea, feel free to jump in.
- Rob